A 57-year-old female shrimp seller in China''s Wuhan city, the originating point of the global Coronavirus pandemic, has been identified as one of the first victims of COVID-19, which has claimed nearly 28,000 lives around the world so far, according to media reports. The coronavirus ''patient zero'', who made a full recovery in January after month-long treatment, believes the Chinese government could have checked the spread of the disease had it acted sooner.
Wei Guixian, as identified by The Wall Street Journal, was selling shrimps at the Huanan Seafood Market on December 10 when she developed a cold. Believing she had the common flu, Wei went to a local clinic for treatment where she was given an injection, the Mirror UK reported. However, Wei continued to feel weak and visited Eleventh Hospital in Wuhan a day later. Wei was told by doctors her illness was "ruthless" and other workers at the market had come to the Wuhan Union Hospital with the same symptoms, the Metro newspaper report quoted the outlet as saying.
"Every winter, I suffer from the flu, so I thought it was the flu," the woman was quoted as saying by The Paper news outlet.The shrimp seller added that she believed she contracted the coronavirus from the shared toilet in the market.She said the fatal disease would have killed fewer people if the government had acted sooner. Wuhan Municipal Health Commission has confirmed that Wei was among the first 27 people to test positive for the coronavirus. Chinese researchers have claimed that the first person diagnosed with the airborne virus had no contact with the seafood market and was identified on December 1, 2019.Wei was later quarantined when a connection was made between the bug and the market before recovering in January.